For a healthy and enjoyable motor development at every age and at every level.
Learning to move well is important for everyone’s health, well-being, and fitness. It forms the foundation for both a recreational and competitive athletic life. Enjoyment in movement is a key motivator at any age to continue being active. This is fostered through variety and diversity in a challenging and versatile movement offering. Versatile movement also leads to better adaptability, fewer injuries, improved athletic performance, and greater creativity. Learning to move well and versatile movement go hand in hand. The question is: what is versatile movement?
By: René Wormhoudt, Prof. dr. Geert Savelsbergh & Jorick Hendriksen
Versatile movement is often described using various terms such as broad motor development, broad motor education, all-round or multi-directional movement, or a term like multisport. The interpretation of the concept of versatile movement often does not go beyond ‘offering variation in sports.’ The Athletic Skills Model (from now on referred to as ASM) has developed versatile movement, with the ‘Fundamental 10!’, from a vision into a practically applicable tool for groups or individuals and for all forms of movement. It is applicable in physical education, rehabilitation/healthcare, elite and recreational sports, unorganized sports, the corporate world, and vitality programs.
The Fundamental 10! with ten Basic Movement Skills:
1. Balancing and faling | 2.Romping and fighting | 3. Moving and locomotion | 4. Jumping and landing | 5.Rolling, tumbling and turning | 6. Throwing, catching, hitting and aiming | 7. Kicking, shooting and aiming | 8.Climbing | 9. Swinging | 10.Music in motion
For all ages
The ‘Fundamental 10!’ consists of ten different fundamental movement forms, each of which can be expressed in various ways. These 10 basic movement skills provide structure to a versatile movement program, offering opportunities for every age and level to become skilled in movement in a fun and challenging way. While versatile movement is often associated with children, the ‘Fundamental 10!’ is for all ages, including the elderly! Learning to move better and being able to move more effectively makes everyone fitter and healthier, and that is interesting for all ages.
“Learning to move better and being able to move makes everyone fitter and healthier, and that is interesting for all ages.”
FIRST AN ATHLETE, THEN A SPECIALIST
It is well-known that many top athletes have practiced multiple sports, which means they have automatically covered a large portion of the "Fundamental 10!" This has contributed to better physical resilience, fewer injuries resulting in more movement hours, a longer athletic career, and the development of more creative movement solutions.
Incorporating many fundamental movement activities into your movement repertoire used to happen naturally. For example, during outdoor play, school gym, music lessons, dance lessons, and other creative subjects. However, the current generation of youth is less fit, and we need to offer additional movement programs and advice to compensate for the ‘forgotten movement skills.’ In addition, today’s adults and elderly are also not moving enough. Our sedentary behavior is excessive, and when we do move, it is often one-dimensional. It doesn’t seem logical to talk about learning to move better or balance and fall training only at a later age. It’s more logical to influence people throughout their entire lives with a well-thought-out, diverse movement program. The ‘Fundamental 10!’ serves as a menu of choices to provide trainers, coaches, teachers, therapists, parents, mentors, or even yourself with a structure for designing a versatile movement program.
“You can use the ‘Schijf van 10’ as a menu for movement programs.”
How does the Fundamental 10! work?
Specific training remains important, and it is also part of the ASM, but there is more! You can improve in soccer, swimming, or tennis not just by playing soccer, swimming, or playing tennis alone. The Schijf van 10! provides a framework for implementing versatile movement.
The ASM advises using the Fundamental 10! to focus on all 10 movement skills that are present within sports, games, activities, professional profiles, or training exercises. Through the Fundamental 10!, structure can be brought into versatile movement programs such as physical education classes and vitality programs. When focusing on a specific sport or activity, an analysis can be made based on the 10 movement activities. Some fundamental activities may be present in that particular sport, while others are not. The fundamentals that are included in the sport are often developed in a one-dimensional way, specific to that sport. The forms that are not included usually receive no attention. The fewer fundamental forms present, the less diverse the movement, the more one-sided it becomes, and the higher the risk of overuse injuries and strain.
Many people, for example, take up running to stay fit. Running on a flat surface utilizes only two of the ten fundamental movement forms, with little variation within those two forms. According to the Fundamental 10!, it is therefore a one-dimensional form of movement. The number of injuries per 1,000 hours of sport is highest in running compared to other sports, making it the most injury-prone sport (see ‘What is the Most Dangerous Sport,’ De Volkskrant, NL). Playing a sport like tennis, for example, utilizes four movement forms from the Schijf van 10!. To apply the Fundamental 10! to tennis, more attention should be given to a versatile application of these four tennis-specific movement forms, supplemented with skills from the remaining six movement forms that are not present in tennis to complete the Fundamental 10!.
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING FOR A SUSTAINABLE IMPACT
By sharing knowledge and insights about versatile movement in an understandable way with students, athletes, and patients, a sustainable contribution can be made to enjoying movement throughout life. For example, the physical therapist provides the patient with insight into movement behavior and the possibilities or limitations during and after rehabilitation, while the physical education teacher offers students a foundation to responsibly manage their own movement behavior even after their school years.
In practice, it is almost impossible to apply all ten fundamental movement forms in all possible approaches. Fortunately, this is not necessary. The first important step is striving to expand movement skills. For this, coaches in sports, parents, talent development programs, clubs, associations, and not least the athletes themselves, need to think differently about the content of movement programs, advice, education, and collaboration models. Furthermore, it is important that the choices made for the content of a movement program take into account the enjoyment factor and the personal preferences of the child, adult, or elderly person.
“Take into account the personal preferences of the child, adult, or elderly person.”
De Schijf van 10! connects
The Fundamental 10! is universally applicable for all forms of movement. For training in elite and recreational sports, for physical education lessons and rehabilitation, and also for vitality programs in the corporate world or movement advice for everyday life. Due to its universal application, the Fundamental 10! provides a common language for professionals. Collaboration can emerge from a unified approach. For example, the physical therapist can work with the community sports coach to design movement programs, and gym classes can be aligned with elite sports programs. When the benefits of the Fundamental 10! become clear, there will be greater appreciation for practicing other sports, different games, and, of course, for physical education in general. Parents will learn to view their child’s motor development differently, clubs will collaborate more, sports associations will train coaches in a new way, physical education will work more closely with clubs, and adults will adapt their movement strategies to new ideas and opportunities.
More than just versatile movement
As a result of applying the Fundamental 10!, other areas of social and physical development will also be positively influenced, such as general coordination and fitness. This is called a ‘transfer of learning’ in the ASM. The skills and competencies someone learns in one situation or sport can be applied in another context. To develop multiple fundamental movement forms, it is necessary to come into contact with other sports, other clubs, or different group compositions. This also means influence from other cultures, through different coaches, colleagues, communication styles, and forms of discipline or perseverance. You are exposed to other rules and guidelines, which leads to positive transfers in tactical and strategic thinking and behavior. The crucial adaptability is fully activated on multiple levels!
“The crucial adaptability is fully activated on multiple levels!”
From Theory to Practice
The application of the Fundamental 10! requires solid underpinning. It is important to have the right knowledge to effectively support movement programs and interventions. The ASM was first published in 2012 in a Dutch-language book and expanded in 2018 with an English-language edition and in 2021 in Japanese. The growing interest in the ASM and the Fundamental 10! is currently being addressed through the training of sports professionals and physiotherapists at the ASM Academy, the development of innovative training materials such as the ASM Adaptaball and ASM REV3RSE and the design of movement facilities for municipalities, schools, sports accommodations, and health centers based on the concepts of Skills Garden and PLAYCE.
